WHO GOES THERE? DEER SHED HOST A TIME TRAVEL PARTY

Our favourite festival, Deer Shed, is hosting a party for Time Travellers to celebrate their Time Travel Theme for Deer Shed 5. It promises to be a special end to the first day of the festival and given that the music line-up includes Johnny Marr, British Sea Power, Stornoway, Steve Mason, Pins, Wolf Alice, Georgia Ruth and a ton of others you start to wonder what more they could possibly add to make it better. That said, there's still the literature and the PG comedy tent to come so I guess we'll know the answer soon.

So, if you happen to know any travellers across time and space, forward them the invite below and tell them to come along.

22nd April 2014

DEER SHED FESTIVAL 5
FRIDAY 25th JULY TO SUNDAY 27th JULY 2014
Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, North Yorkshire

The theme for this year's Deer Shed Festival is Time Travel, and the festival organisers are going to be hosting an ambitious Time Travel Party to celebrate.

A Time Travel Party is like any other party, with music and nibbles, except that you invite time travellers from the future to attend as well as guests from 2014. You can't expect time travellers from the past to turn up because time travel hasn't been invented - this time travelling thing can mess with your head!

"Of course inviting time travellers from the future isn't an exact science", says festival organiser Oliver Jones, "but as a starting point the invitation itself has to persist until time travel is possible". With this in mind Oliver has decided to get the invitation engraved into a brass plaque which he intends to firmly secure to the obelisk in Baldersby Park where the party is to be held. The plaque contains all the party particulars including the time, the place and also a 'dress to impress' dress code. The festival team hopes that it will be discovered at some point in the future when time travel is as common as a trip to the supermarket.

However, Oliver is not sure that the invitation alone will convince the time travellers. "You have to imagine you are a time-travel-agent, why come to 2014 and not some other year?" The festival team decided to have an enormous pan-dimensional shout-out to further encourage time travellers and so built a website, www.timetravelparty.com, where people can submit a photo or an image that is dear to their heart. "We hope that this mass emotional offering will somehow arch across time and strike a chord".

So far people have submitted all sorts of imagery to the site – from favourite childhood holidays to a pair of old goalkeeping gloves, and the comments accompanying each picture are suitably heart-warming.

Why not head over to www.timetravelparty.com and submit something to the cause? Of course if you want to meet the time travellers in person then it sounds like Deer Shed Festival 5 might be the best place to do it.

Alongside the party of the centuries, this year’s Deer Shed Festival will include a range of time travel themed family workshops and activities including; the opportunity to meet and interact with our time travellers, robotic upgrades to your favourite cuddly toy or ‘Tedroid’, castle building, a full sized medieval trebuchet and the chance to build a Time Machine.

For rest of us that little bit too old to admit to still owning a teddy or not inclined to a build castle, our headliner Johnny Marr may well transport a few of us back to our teenage years. With British Sea Power, Stornoway, Steve Mason, Cate Le Bon and a host of other musical moments on the bill alongside Johnny and our PG rated Comedy, literature and cinema line up to come, Deer Shed 5 is all set to be our best yet.




WEEKEND TICKETS FOR DEER SHED 5 ARE ON SALE NOW, PRICED AS FOLLOWS

Adult Weekend Ticket (16+) £99 plus booking fee
Child Weekend Ticket (6+) £30 plus booking fee
Child Weekend Ticket (5 and under) £1 plus booking fee
Campervan / Caravan / Trailer Tent £30 plus booking fee

Tent camping and car park are free to ticket holders.

PLEASE NOTE – prices given for adult tickets relate to Tier 2 weekend tickets. There are a limited amount of tickets in each tier. When Tier 2 tickets are sold out prices will be as follows

Adult Weekend Ticket (Tier 3) £109 plus booking fee
Adult Weekend Ticket (Tier 4) £119 plus booking fee

FOR INFORMATION ON ALL ASPECTS OF THE FESTIVAL INCLUDING TERMS AND CONDITIONS RELATING TO TICKETS GO TO www.deershedfestival.com.

DEER SHED FESTIVAL FACTS

Our ethos

We are massive fans of music and the arts in general, and we all have kids. We have over the years got increasingly fed up with paying a small fortune to get our families into various festivals only to be disappointed in the music or in the entertainment, facilities and vibe for the sprogs. The Deer Shed Festival is our long considered response to this. Kids are not second class citizens at DSF.

However, we will not compromise on what's on just because we are 'family friendly'. If you don't have children to bring along you will still find a lovely chilled atmosphere in which to enjoy a great weekend.

Our history

This is the fifth Deer Shed Festival. The team behind it have been in place from the start and families are at the heart of the preparations and the activities and services on site. In the last five years we have grown in attendance but are sensible to making sure that we never get too big. Those five years have seen a host of amazing bands play including Edwyn Collins, I Am Kloot, Saint Etienne, The Wedding Present, The House Of Love and Field Music.

What They Said About Deer Shed

"Deer Shed is jam packed with quality. The organisers have clearly given much thought to what all members of the family will want within a festival and have gone a considerable way to delivering that.” EFESTIVALS

“Set in rural North Yorkshire countryside, Deer Shed festival has become one of the most family-friendly events.” THE GUARDIAN

“Deer Shed, you’ve created the perfect balance. We love you, and will be back next year" WHAT TO DO WITH THE KIDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
Please reference the event with its full title of Deer Shed Festival where possible.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND GUEST LIST - LOUDHAILER PRESS
Lewis Jamieson - lewis@loudhailerpress.com
07718 652582 / 0208714 0139
www.deershedfestival.com

What Goes On - Loudhailer Update

January went like this

elbow launched a film for album track 'Fly Boy Blue / Lunette'



Then they followed it up with a video for the single, 'New York Morning' featuring Dennis and Lois of NYC music scene fame. Soup Collective's finest for them to date I would suggest



The album, 'The Take Off and Landing of Everything' is out March 10th.

There's a new beer as well, called Charge. We had a little party for it last week at The Eagle in Salford. It's very drinkable.

Slowdive reformed. The web went potty. It was very gratifying for all kinds of reasons, mostly because I have known Neil and Rachel since Mojave 3 / 4AD days and it was nice to see their first band get the recognition it deserves. And, no, there aren't many places on the list for the show on May 19th. ;-)



Loudhailer started working with Deer Shed Festival, a grand boutique event up in North Yorkshire which is already way popular but now has added Johnny Marr to its undoubted delights. Fucking Johnny Marr. Headlining. That's a July highlight right there



Balthazar announced a date in London at the Hoxton Bar & Kitchen on Feb 27th and a new single, 'Leipzig'. As great as anything on 'Rats', which we all know is great yeah?, looking forward to seeing a band that impress live every time.



Tom Hickox came to London with Lindi Ortega and played a spellbinding set. The debut album is a Loudhailer fave of early 2014.



The Twang are gearing up to go on tour before the release of new album. 'NEONTWANG' in March. New single 'Larry Lizard' is a blinder



The Anchoress launched a debut single with a play from Steve Lamacq on 6 Music. Video for 'What Goes On' soon.

And Towns land in London tomorrow to play Antidotes at The Old Blue Last.

expect this kind of thing

Songs and Shows that saved my life 2013

I think I echo many critics when I say this has been a funny year musically. The ebb and flow of coverage has centred around 'impact' releases, at times it seemed that labels had colluded more than normal to ensure that everyone got a bite of that month long blanket coverage for their showcase release. Leading the pack on wall to wall media was Bowie, who made the cover of every music title for his release and even infiltrated radio programming without actually saying a word. Earl Slick had a very good middle of year as the official spokesman for all things David. Nick Cave, Daft Punk, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys and Haim all became part of this whirl of blitzkrieg media, squeezing the oxygen supply to such an extent that there was precious little room for anything else to breathe around their album releases.

And yet, looking back over the year my favourite records and stand out moments are notably without any of these 'must-have' releases. Parquet Courts, Matthew E White, Daughter and Lorde all crept up on us a little but have ended the year lined up as things to notice for 2014.

As ever my list includes precisely no bands on the roster. this is for two reasons. Firstly it seems churlish to suggest that I like the music and bands that Loudhailer represents, that is very much a given and secondly, were I to include them there would be no room for anyone else. That said, and here's the little plug, particular Loudhailer highlights of 2013 were Night Engine's sold out Borderline show, Editors UK tour and a fourth album of quite remarkable consistency and daring, returning to the fold of The Polyphonic Spree after a long time away and their phenomenal Village Underground show and working with Matt Berry on 'Kill The Wolf', an album I fully expect to be attracting attention for years to come.

The summer took me to Glastonbury (which provides some of my live highlights of this year), Latitude (which supplies the rest and which will forever be remembered by me for Molly headbanging along to Bloc Party on my shoulders) and Reading (which has none, though Night Engine were remarkable - rules, schmules).

So, in time honoured fashion and to add to a teetering pile of 'Best Ofs' here we go

Albums of 2013

1. Savages - Silence Yourself

I have kept coming back to this throughout the year. A rare new band that seemed to have more than a fleeting agenda, whilst some of their interviews made me cringe at times (a Guardian chat in particular sticks in my mind), for a debut 'Silence Yourself' is genuinely remarkable, a musical statement of intent unrivalled by any.



2. Parquet Courts - 'Light Up Gold'

Big thanks to Tim Hall of (then) PIAS for turning me on to this. The first three songs are the best opener to an album I have heard all year and 'Socrates died in the fucking gutter' still makes me smile.



3. Laura Marling - Once I Was An Eagle

Loved her since the debut album. Amazing to watch this career progression and this is, to my mind, her best yet. Wonderful, talented long term artist that the whole country should be proud of. A genius in the making.



4. Primal Scream - More Light

I grew up with Primal Scream. I wanted to be Bobby Gillespie in JAMC days. I own 'Velocity Girl' and its one of those things I would save in a fire. But I thought me and the Scream had parted company of recent times. Then I heard '2013' and I was back in the club immediately. Please god let this be a run of good stuff and not a one-off.....



5. John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts

I liked The Czars and vaguely knew his solo stuff but this, well this was quite an eye opener.



Shows of 2013

1. The Rolling Stones at Glastonbury

Fuck being clever here. I was so excited about this i didn't quite believe I was going to see it until I was in the field and then I don't remember much apart from grinning and dancing until the end of the set. 'Happy', Jumping Jack Flash' 'Paint It Black' were particular highlights, reminding me of my dear departed mum but the whole thing was a proper moment to remember and tell the grandkids. Others thought it was flat, guess we stood in the right place - noatble thanks to Tom Smith for the suicidal but successful (how did he get back into the field?) drinks run - God was on our side etc. Or perhaps my mum had a little hand in it....



2. Bobby Womack at Latitude

It's not often you get to put your four year old daughter in a position where, in later years, she can say 'I saw that legend'. Latitude Sunday afternoon offered just that chance and Bobby Womack was immense. The family Jamieson had a good dance, the kids field didn't matter and everyone had smiles on their faces. Legend.



3. I Am Kloot at Glastonbury

I still say there's no justice that this set wasn't in all the reviews of the weekend. Kloot were stately, funny, thought provoking and downright groovy that afternoon. But those of us who saw it know and that's what really counts. Fuck lost gems, this lot should be up there every album.



4. Savages at Electrowerkz

Like their debut Savages shows are an exercise in totality. The most compelling new band I have seen (outside Loudhailer) by a country mile.



5. Matthew E White at Latitude

I like 'Big Inner' a lot but I like it live a lot more. Country soul revue time. Made our afternoon.



The single that got me this year

Lorde - 'Royals'

Out of nowhere, no hype as such, just a great track with sharp lyrics and a real sense of self. Proof that good music can cut through.

The book I loved

Morrissey - Autobiography

Possibly the least controversial thing I will ever say (if you know me, you'll know this was no contest). the opening 20 pages are some of the finest writing period, the rest is genuinely engaging, even the court stuff has a certain interest to it. Much as I try I can't let go of my love for Morrissey, now Molly is stealing my Smiths cds it seems like the curse has been passed down a generation.

Sound And Fury Signifying Nothing

Bands are dead. Critics are dead. Music is dead. And so on. After the dissection of the Mercury Prize we move on to the BBC Sound Of list in the annual carnival that is the death grip relationship between the media and the music industry.

I’ve been part of the shrug dressed up as fanfare that is the Sound Of List on a couple of occasions. Times were different when The Ordinary Boys and then The Twang found themselves part of the list. Both bands went on to healthy sales, in the case of the (then) much maligned Twang more than healthy sales and two of the biggest radio hits of the year in ‘Wide Awake’ and ‘Either Way’. Would either have succeeded without their inclusion? Yes. Did their inclusion make a major difference? Not at press, in my world, the press were already on it hence the inclusion. Possibly at radio. What you can say without any shadow of doubt is that their inclusion was a small part of the first stage of what, for want of a better word we shall call their ‘career’. And wildly divergent their paths were since then. The Ordinary Boys went on to a singer on celeb tv, a massive hit and then a void, one that I understand all have come out of ok, which is good news. The Twang were hung out to dry but have simply continued and now find themselves out of the other side, happily making records (Rory Attwell produced the latest one so clearly they aren’t poison in the way that some would imagine) and touring to a dedicated and loyal fanbase, playing to numbers that many of those in later Sound Of Polls could only dream of at their height and certainly will never see in the future.

The debate this time is centred around the make up of the list. Bands are notable by their absence, QED bands are dead. The media loves to declare extinction in music, in the last decade or so I can recall dance music, hip hop, rock and indie all being ‘dead’ at some point, normally just before the chosen corpse rises Lazarus like to dominate the discussion if not the charts. The Sound Of List is, to a greater degree, no better or worse than all the other ‘Tips for the next year’ pieces that drop like portents of doom / the chimes of the future (*delete according to pessimism) around the close of one year and the start of the next. No great surprise there given that many of the writers and broadcasters of such pieces are themselves part of the quasi illuminati voting panel that declare the 15 to watch for the national broadcaster.

What ‘The Sound Of’ and its ilk really represent is an agenda setter for the media to fill up the first month or so of any given new year. In essence, and despite many ‘failures’ across the lists over the years, the bulk of those chosen are guaranteed airplay on Radio One and therefore will undoubtedly achieve some kind of position within the national consciousness for that short window of time. Clever record companies will tie their appearance into the release of debut albums in a quiet month scoring higher chart placings than would otherwise be the case on lower sales allowing folk like me to add the epithet ‘Top Ten album’ to the press release announcing the post album single release. To pretend otherwise is to amplify a media construct to national discussion.

As for bands being dead, a dispassionate look across the music landscape reveals this to be, frankly, utter bollocks. Chvrches look very much like a band to me, as do Palma Violets, Parquet Courts, Savages, Fat White Family etc ad nauseum. One commentator on The Guardian’s outlet for bile and tosh suggested that record companies had devised some Machiavellian pact to stop signing bands on the basis that they are ‘too expensive’. He has clearly never paid session musicians to replicate the job of a signed (and therefore free) musician. What the list may reveal to us is that Radio One are not particularly keen on bands but when did we ever look to Radio One to break anything of note? Those writing obituaries should beware, history tells us that premature declarations of ‘facts’ often leave their makers looking less than intelligent.

Welcome to the age of Buzzfeed politics

It had to happen I guess. I have just finished reading a Buzzfeed post by walking hate figure Grant Shapps explaining in the standard 12 points why the Tories are looking after our energy bills and how horrid Labour are to blame for the mess we are in.

Aside from the nonsense points ('Ed Milliband switched his bill, the hypocrite', 'switching is the way to do it') that can be either dismissed or knocked down in a second - on the latter, switching within a closed market really doesn't help much) the very existence of this post both challenges Buzzfeed's validity as anything other than a glorified Twitter come Instagram AND marks yet another moment where the idea of political debate as a meaningful exercise capable of change takes another step towards the exit.

In 24 hours we have had our Prime Minister in white tie and tails pronounce the endless drive of austerity whilst sitting down to a god knows how many courses meal with the business masters of our country, Iain Duncan Smith fail to show up to face the music of his miserable (and counter productive) bedroom tax to discuss youth unemployment across a Europe his party want to leave and now this piece of pseudo youth culture grabbing nakedly corporate pr nonsense splashed across social media.

Meanwhile, George Monbiot in the last two weeks has explained in calm, reasoned and, crucially, researched pieces how our country and our money is being taken from us by business interests in cahoots with the very politicians that push defence of corporate interests, austerity for the poor and ethnic cleansing of high cost residential areas. Even that Tory hate figure, the EU, is part of the problem.

Its an age of Buzzfeed politics. 12 Reasons why you should vote Douche. Or Turd

In defence of music critics

A fascinating exchange over Twitter today with Angus Batey, Dan Cairns and Martyn Young has got me thinking about where critical writing is headed.

The basic tone of the conversation travelled from the low quality of some music criticism on well known music sites raised by Dan into the lack of support (financial in the main) available to writers by Angus to my thoughts on the 'first not best' culture driving so much of the media in general these days. See The Mail calling the Amanda Fox verdict early in big newspaper world or my comments on the mistaken identity of Matt Willis of Busted / Matt Willis who manages Tricky for a music version of that. We were bemoaning the lack of sub-editors leading to inferior copy in print and on the web via lack of strict editorial controls (especially on the web) when Martyn; not one of those I would bracket in the poor online writers, popped up to shine a light on the lack of actual wages or payment available to those who generate much of the copy about popular music in all its forms. What really surprised me was his assertion that he 'has never been paid for any work'. Leaving aside an observation about the Tories new under 25's 'work or get fucked' policy and the wider culture of 'free work' I will merely permit myself to look at this in context of the music criticism.

Critical appreciation is a necessary part of a civilised society. Like many roles in society it is easy to demean, critics serve no immediate quantifiable purpose to society (nor do half the City Of London but we will refrain from going into that) and so, in a culture defined by 'usefulness' as a unit of production, the serious critic is not a figure that engenders immediate massive public support. Yet the history of public art in all its forms is one that travels from the margins to the centre of society with the aide of critics. This is as true of the novel as it is jazz and is especially true of popular music.

The process of critical unravelling, in essence the devaluation of music criticism and discussion to mere 'content', has been gathering pace for the last decade. No one in the process, from the critics themselves through the magazines and papers that employ them to the music industry and prs that supply them is blameless in this journey to the hole in which we now find ourselves.

The first misconception was that the internet would be a place for greater critical appreciation. The monetisation of the internet, driven by access and non word based delivery forms has resulted in a landscape of untrained enthusiasts mingled with sites that are more interested in traffic driving than unique content delivery. This is not a catch all, there are many great writers and devoted sites out there as previously there were fanzines, but the sheer scale of the financial opportunities involved for the large media companies and their ability to push into markets has both marginalised the 'enthusiast' community and driven down standards as a whole. Alongside the 'first not best' dictum has come churnalism and a slackening of editorial oversight that delivers not just massive clangers (see the Vampire Weekend album sleeve story for a more amusing example) but a steady drip drip of 'print it as soon as you can' stories that range from puff piece press releases to half baked 'news' featuring a big hit name in the middle. Competition being what it is, it is inevitable that standards across the board dive as sales of print fall, endless new players enter the market undercutting the existing players and margins disappear. The internet will not be the saviour of the written word.

The second misconception was that to survive the written word had to compete on the same platform with video and audio. Video in particular cannot deliver serious and considered critical opinion. Those of us who love culture can count on the fingers of one hand the cultural discussion programs that have worked over the years. As a starting point to considering any art they serve a purpose but I cannot accept that to come to a considered opinion on a work of art (and I firmly place my chosen popular music in that category) a video can deliver that experience. Similarly audio is limited by delivery. Only the written word can really allow you to consider and appreciate a work of art outside of the work itself. The ability to return to the arguments and opinions, to pause and consider, to control the pace of your understanding and to internally rebuke or concur with the critic, all these are only possible with the written word. Thus, the music website template, of video this and on tour that detracts from the writing and devalues it, delivering a portion of your attention span to the work that should demand such attention in its entirety.

The third misconception is that of the role of the critic and their relationship with the music industry. Dan highlighted the label's schedules and concerns over album delivery to critics in our discussion. Whilst I have sympathy with the labels and the artists given their product is so insecure and those stealing are unlikely to face any sanction, the work of the critic should be based on immersion, not casual acquaintance. We need critics to be ahead of us in their thoughts and reasoning. As a pr I despise an ill thought out review, I accept a bad one well argued. As a human, I accept that receipt of an album days before copy is due is not a position of strength from which to deliver the perfect prose. Further, the increased reliance on digital delivery of albums may well be a money saver and deliver some vague ecological message on a par with those 'please do not print out this email...' footers but the truth is that listening to a well crafted album on a compressed stream or a download does not give the music its best setting at the very least. As for the other elements of an album that matter, cover image, sleevenotes, its very existence as a physical thing, these are long since casualties of that 'quantifiable value' theory that permeates our culture.

The fourth misconception is that the public are better at choosing art than critics. Whether a product of human ego or, more likely, the logical endpoint of an individualism that encompasses Ann Raynd, 'Because You're Worth It', 'There is no such thing as society' or the 'respect' agenda of the stereotypical UK gangsta, the truth is that if you choose art on the basis of public appreciation your culture will undoubtedly wither. The list of things that now define the UK that were outside public taste, indeed hated by the public, is so obvious I won't bother to list it. Further, releasing albums by massive acts one week early only feeds into this idea that the public should be on a par with the critics. That is a nonsense. As Angus pointed out, if the web is awash with fan reviews of a record the week before release why would a publisher bother to pay for a reviewer to do it properly?

The best critic is, with no exaggeration, a prophet. If you feel uncomfortable with that in the current context of music criticism, choose one of the obvious past masters and reconsider that phrase. Their actions give deeper meaning and understanding to the music that, for many, is more than just a background. Their words can help to build new communities of strength that take music as the starting point for a meaningful cultural journey that can (and does) change the very way that society works; its relationships, power structures, values and behaviour, for the better. Their slow removal from our music culture leaves it with less meaning and depth and weakens the foundations of our wider culture. Whilst we celebrate the stories of the past we risk the destruction of the stories of the future, whilst we point to the generational progress soundtracked by popular music but interpreted by its critics and celebrants we risk reducing new expression to a clutch of short lived headlines and ill thought out reaction, devoid of wider meaning.

Anyone for Kool AId?

It was always strange. That first night in the UK at the Royal Festival Hall when the power cut and they played on and the power cut back in at exactly the right moment. The endless festivals where rainclouds would part as they walked onstage to dazzling sunshine, the guy who crashed his bike watching them being pictured in Hyde Park and woke up surrounded by people in white robes with Texan accents. It was always strange and it was always brilliant.

It was many of the things I thought rock n roll should be. The cultish vibe, the drive of Tim Delaughter and Julie, the choir's endless energy, the post rave vibe of the shows. The Union Chapel with Tim walking over the pews in suitably challenging mode, collisions of cult and God and irony, the humour and intelligence at the heart of it all. And a sense of family, 23 really good friends rolling into town and making everything technicolour.

So I am most pleased to say, once again, that I am the pr for The Polyphonic Spree.

News on album and tour soon.